Wednesday, May 28, 2014

KG Graduation is a big Deal!

(Will post pix soon)

My little girl graduated today. I can't believe how fast time passes us by. A little over five years ago she was an itty-bitty newborn. And now, she's graduating Kinder. We are so proud of her. She has matured so much this past year. She has gone through so much change all of her life with all the traveling. But what she and we as a family have endured this past school year was hard. Losses.
She is so strong, so brave. But losing her "baby brodder" was hard on our Munchkin. She still misses her Tommy and talks about him all the time. How I wish he could've been here with us to celebrate her huge milestone.
Our girl was anticipating today for so long. Her gorgeous class put on an amazing performance choreographed by her extraordinary teacher, Ms. Tara. It was a "Gingerbread Man" musical. Munchkin got to be a gingerbread man. They had beautiful costumes. They all knew their parts. It was a great production. They also sang and danced to other songs. It was so neat. And of course, receiving her diploma in her cap 'n gown was an awesome moment also. We were so happy and proud of our baby. She does all her parts so well. I know I'm bragging. But it was so cute to see her making all the little moves she learned. So cute. So funny. It reminded me of when she was in the school-wide production "The Ribbon" at Eton House last year. She really learns her part.
After the ceremony, we headed to her classroom for a little party. There were gifts, and cake - from La Brioche!!!!!! Yuuuummm. But I was good. Not one bite! Mila, on the other hand ate from the "brown cake" twice. And from the "white cake" twice. Plus other little snacks. By the time we left for lunch, her belly was a little full. We headed to the mall with her BFF. Both girls all dressed up. They were so cute. Everyone looked at them and smiled as they passed us. While Daddy was parking, we started walking and the girls were talking about how their parents never let them ride on the mechanical stuffed animal rides. Hmmm, I figured it was a special day. Why not? So on they went. Both of them giggling and crashing into each other as shoppers walked by. Then we all went to lunch. Both girls only ate half of their lunches and I packed the rest. Afterwards, we wanted to give the girls another surprise. We went down to the basement to Fun City. They were so excited! They played so much on the machines and got so many coupons to exchange for prizes. It truly was so much fun for them. After all the machines, carousel rides, and prize retrieval, we decided we just needed a rest. So we sat at the loungers in St@rbucks. And we waited for the mommy to pick the BFF up. We chatted a bit. Then they left to do some shopping at -Carrefour_ and we decided to give Mila her special gift.  She finally got her very first big Lollaloopsy doll. Such a happy camper.
We were so tired. We went home and watched videos of her grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousin congratulating her on her big day. What a full, fun-packed day.




*Funny, we were having lunch at L'Italianos with her best friend. And out of the blue, this little girl asks me to show her a picture of Tommy. I was so surprised by that. But that also tells me that Mila talks about him often. Oh my sweet girl. And my sweet boy. How we miss him! But hopefully soon we'll be able to see him with his forever family. Maybe he'll be present in Mila's next graduation or maybe we could be present in his KG graduation. That would be neat.

Monday, May 5, 2014

The Epitome of Selflessness.

This sweet mama, Tara, wrote the most selfless post. It made me think of my Little Lovie's forever mom and his foster mom. Well, and his first Mama. What an amazing heart. So much grace.

"The Best Mama"

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Easy Like Sunday Morning...







I cannot wait for this summer. For so many reasons. We have some fun things planned and also planning on not planning too much. Just like our Tokyo trip last summer. Nice, easy breezy. We're stopping in Paris for a few days on our way home. We've been trying to visit Paris for years now and something always changes our course. Disney Paris is also on the horizon. Mila will be so thrilled.
I have so much to look forward to. I'm feeling so blessed. But, as they say here: "Shway-shway", little by little, poco a poco. Easy Like Sunday Morning. My favorite attitude.










We will have friends from here visiting Miami for the first time. It'll be fun to show them around. They've been so good to us here; we hope to show them the same hospitality there.
We will be doing lots of swimming in my mom's pool. You see, my family has had big dogs ever since Mila was a baby. It was hard for us to use the pool because we were scared. We have a big dog, but they've been with each other from day one. Mila was a stranger to these dogs. We only go visit in the summers so they don't really have a chance to get to know each other. Well, now the dogs are not there and it'll be a great opportunity to enjoy Vovo's house. :) We also plan on lots of bike rides on the Beach. Our favorite thing to do when we first got married was to ride our Elektr@ cruisers to Bay H@rbor. Easy Breezy. Oh, and my cafes con leche from Moses Cafe a.k.a. Cachita's. Yuuuummm!
I've had a hard year. I need to put so much to rest and look forward to all the wonderful blessings that are presenting themselves to us.
Dawn... I really hope we get to meet finally. Maybe the girls can come over my mom's for a swim. Since you're neighbors anyway.